Initial agreement signed by the General Sports Authority, the Saudi Football Federation and Saudi Telecom Company

RIYADH, February 6, 2018 – The General Sport Authority (GSA), the Saudi Football Federation and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) have signed an agreement giving the company the exclusive rights to broadcast Saudi football matches as well as the national Saudi team’s matches.

Under the deal signed late on Monday in Riyadh, STC also gets marketing sponsorship for the Saudi Professional League, the Saudi Football Federation, the Referees Committee, General Sports Authority competitions, and technical support for championships.

The contract was agreed for a period of 10 years and is valued at SAR 6.6 billion (USD $1.76 billion), GSA said in a statement.

“The agreement includes exclusive transmission rights for local competitions, such as the Saudi professional league, the King’s Cup, the Crown Prince Cup, Professional League supplementary matches, as well as Saudi national team matches which the Saudi Football Federation has the rights to,” said the statement.

STC will be able to do both TV broadcasting as well as digital transmission of the games, according to a GSA official.

“STC will get the exclusive TV and digital rights of the competitions. They will transmit the games online; and as for television, it will either open a station or give options to sell the rights to other stations. This is possible, but they will decide what they will do,” he said.

“As for international broadcasts, it will be like any other station that broadcasts everywhere aside from some countries where there are cable subscriptions, but that’s a totally different issue,” he added.

GSA Chairman Turki Al-Sheikh attended the signing of the contract by the Executive Chairman of STC, Dr. Khaled Al-Bayari and the Chairman of the Saudi Football Federation, Dr. Adel Ezzat.